Anti-LGBTQ Bill will have to be reintroduced – Speaker rules

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has ruled that the controversial Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill must be reintroduced in the current Parliament, as it expired with the end of the 8th Parliament.

This clarification follows a week of uncertainty and debate among lawmakers, after the Majority Leader argued that the bill had already been passed by the 8th Parliament and therefore did not need to be reintroduced.

However, the Speaker firmly disagreed, explaining that all pending business in the 8th Parliament ceased to exist when that Parliament was dissolved.

“The eighth Parliament is history. So are all the businesses that were pending in the eighth Parliament. They all ended with the eighth Parliament and so we have a new Parliament — the ninth Parliament — and therefore what was pending there came to an end and has to be reintroduced,” he said.

Providing further clarification, the Speaker revealed that the bill had been transmitted to former President Nana Akufo-Addo, who declined to assent to it. However, according to Mr. Bagbin, the presidency failed to fulfill its constitutional obligation to return the bill to Parliament with reasons for the refusal.

“They wrote to tell us that they would not assent to it. The only constitutional error they committed was that they didn’t give us reasons why they would not assent to it, and they did not transmit the bill back to us. They imprisoned it there,” he explained.

He added that the 9th Parliament has now taken back the bill, which originated as a private member’s bill spearheaded by MPs with the backing of traditional, religious, and civil society leaders.

“As you would recall, that’s a private member’s bill, and so members of this House took it up. It went through the whole process as detailed in our Standing Orders. But as it went through the process, the new government indicated that they wanted to take it as a public bill.

“I personally disagreed and made it known to His Excellency the President that this was an initiative of our people — the traditional leaders, the religious leaders, civil society leaders and so we would process it as a private member’s bill.”

The Speaker indicated that before the bill can be laid before the House again, he must perform the procedural duties required by the Standing Orders of Parliament. “Our rules have given what the speaker is expected to do, which I will do before it can be laid in the House.”